A Falling Star
by Shikon no Jedi
Summary: Sarika was raised loyal to the Empire, she thinks the Rebellion ruined her life. But when someone crashes a ship they tried to steal from the spaceport, what happens when all her illusions are broken? Oneshot


A Falling Star

The quiet Maethelian wind whispered through the tall strands of razor grass and blew Sarika's silky near-black hair off her face. Her feet made no noise on the soft earth. She enjoyed nights like this, the sky would be perfectly clear. Sarika carefully sidestepped a large blade of the sharp grass as she made her way to her hilltop. She came here for peace, to contemplate the night and the stars, the great expanse of the Galaxy, and it was comforting to watch as Imperial ships entered and departed the spaceport. They looked like falling stars, little bright pinpoints of light as they traversed the atmosphere, the friction creating a glow, hypnotizing almost.

Ducking to avoid the last piece of razor grass, Sarika sighed as she emerged onto the hilltop. Her hilltop. The ground here was covered in a soft feathergrass that had taken her two years to grow properly. Raef had helped her clear the area of the razor grass… But she would not think of him now.

Lying on her back on the feathergrass, hands behind her head, Sarika looked up at the sky. The lower part still glowed with the spaceport's lights, but the rest was a deep black filled with the bright pinpoints of stars. Ships circled overhead, only distinguishable by their glow, slightly brighter than that of the stars around them. She smiled to herself, _Stars that fall in circles_.

She watched a large freighter rise straight up, using only its repulsors, then shoot forward as the pilot skillfully switched to his rear engines and killed the repulsors simultaneously. She wondered idly what a freighter like that would carry. Not people, passenger ships were more comfortable. Maybe the Imperial ship had stopped to refuel, because it certainly wasn't carrying off the few products of Maethelia, not in a freighter that size. As the freighter turned into another pinpoint of light in space, Sarika moved her eyes to a smaller ship doing loops. That one had to be privately owned, no paid pilot would use up fuel doing loops in a gravity field. What a waste of money.

She scowled at the thought. She and her mother had never meant to stay on Maethelia, but with their small income, what else could they do? They had only been on the planet for five months when the Empire sent word that her father's ship had been shot down by Rebels raiding the spaceport where he'd been trading. She had been seven at the time. Her mother had never been happy after that. They got by, but not well, and they certainly could not afford to buy another ship. That was why Raef had promised…

Sarika's lips twisted into a cynical smile. To get off planet… If only it were that simple. When they'd owned a ship it was so easy to just pick up and move, but as soon as you lose that ship… She had never realized how expensive space travel was. It was too much for her and her mother to even afford transportation off planet much less a whole ship. _We have so much technology, but we're still trapped. You'd never think that with all the technology in the galaxy, that we could still be held back by a stupid planet._ When Raef had promised…

She watched a squad of TIEs fly overhead, guarding the spaceport as per their duty. Was that what Raef had been doing? Guarding an Imperial spaceport when the Rebels attacked? They had already been friends for years when he first took her on a date. And after a year together he told her he would join the Empire. He would train at the Imperial Academy and become an officer. Then he would be able to take her off planet and maybe their mothers too, if they wanted to come. They would have their own ship and plenty of money and would live happily ever after.

And she had believed him.

Six months later, word came that TIE pilot Raef's ship had been destroyed during a Rebel raid. He had never reached an officer's rank, and she would be stranded here forever.

Sarika hated the Rebellion! They had taken her father and now her fiancé too. There was nothing wrong with Imperial rule, why couldn't they just accept it? They were a stubborn bunch of idiots only causing more deaths. Couldn't they see they were only hurting, not helping as they _claimed_? Maybe she would fight them too. She wasn't too old to join the Academy. Maybe she even would have if they treated women fairly. No, she would just be stuck here, she had resigned herself to that fate years ago.

Sarika's eye was caught by another ship that rose quickly out of the spaceport. It seemed slightly out of control, as if the pilot wasn't quite sure what he was doing. Flashes lit the lower sky and Sarika sat up to see what was causing the commotion. Laser fire? The spaceport was firing on the ship that had just taken off. But why would they fire on their own ship?

Standing slowly, she watched in amazement as the little ship managed to escape the spaceport, flying low over the hills. Whoever the pilot was, he had chosen his vehicle well. The little blockade runner was one of the few ships that stood a chance of escape, though it still required a competent pilot.

The screech of TIEs brought her head snapping up as a full squadron zoomed after the silver runner. The Imperial ships looked beautiful in formation, like a living organism that flowed as it moved. Not individual ships, never individual ships. The Empire functioned as a perfect machine; that was what kept everybody happy.

The fleeing ship went into a slow and uncontrolled roll as it attempted an evasive maneuver, TIE fighter laser fire bouncing off its shields. The little ship abandoned its attempt to gain height on its pursuers and tried for distance. An unlucky shot hit the left engine and the ship dropped again, now barely skimming over the razor grass covered hilltops.

_He must be pretty desperate,_ Sarika thought as she watched the ship's rear thrusters fire, slowing it down. _He's still trying to escape_, she realized. _But they'll blow him out of the sky before they let him do that!_ Now he was zigzagging over the razor grass trying to escape as the TIEs fired from above, using their height to prevent his flight.

A bolt of stray laser fire hit a nearby hill and Sarika jumped in surprise. She'd been so entranced by the battle that she hadn't realized how close they were getting. The smart thing to do would be to go home, maybe find out what had happened by watching the news holovids tomorrow, but she didn't want to leave. Or maybe she just couldn't leave. Her feet wouldn't seem to respond to her commands and her eyes refused to be taken off the ships.

A flash of electric blue around the blockade runner indicated that the shields had failed. The pilot fired his thrusters again, trying one last time to gain some distance, but the TIEs shot forward with him, and Sarika watched in growing alarm as the fight got closer and closer to her hill. Abruptly the pilot switched into reverse, slowing his ship to an almost complete stop not two hills over. In the moment the TIEs took to replicate the move, the silver ship changed directions and slipped into an evasive pattern, trying to get as far from the spaceport as it could.

Laser fire spattered off the ship's hull burning some razor grass below. _Good thing, that pilot switched directions, or I'd be toast._ She winced at the thought. _Literally_.

With the shields gone the hull couldn't withstand the barrage of laser fire. The ship began to burn, and despite the desperate struggle to stay aloft, it crashed heavily into the ground, gouging a miniature canyon in its wake.

The damage to the ship wasn't too bad. The pilot had probably survived. _Now they'll arrest him and make him pay for whatever he did._ That was how the Empire worked. The Empire was just.

The TIE squadron rearranged to circle in a tighter formation over the wrecked ship. _Shouldn't they be lower if they're going to land?_ The TIEs, however, had no intention of landing, instead they opened fire on the ship, turning the downed craft into a hunk of steaming scrap metal.

_They…they killed him._ There had to be a mistake. The damage to the cockpit had been minimal. The pilot would have survived. So _why_? Why make sure he was dead?

Sarika watched as the TIEs made several more passes, making sure the ship would be completely unrecognizable, before heading back to the spaceport. Sarika dove under the protective cover of the razor grass as they passed. It didn't matter that they were at least five hills over, she definitely wasn't supposed to have seen that and didn't want to find out what would happen to her if they found that she had.

As the screaming of the fighters' twin ion engines faded, she became aware of two things. First, she was lying in the dirt, and second, that her arm was stinging where she'd cut it on a piece of razor grass. Mentally cursing herself for her own carelessness, she stood slowly, avoiding the grass.

It had always annoyed her that the grass stood several feet above her head, greatly reducing her visibility. Now she was just grateful for the cover it provided as she headed for the ship. The thought of going home did not even cross her mind. She had to see it. She had to know. Know what? It didn't matter. She had to see what they'd done. Maybe then she would understand why…

The once sleek and silver ship lay in the dirt, a piece of twisted metal, deformed beyond recognition. Sarika stared in shock. Who could deserve this? What had he done?

Muffled cursing from the other side of the slag pile provoked and involuntary gasp form Sarika. Who could be there? What if they caught her?

The cursing stopped at her gasp and Sarika turned to flee, but he was too fast, coming around the side of the ship, blaster in hand, before she could disappear into the razor grass.

"Who are you?" He demanded, his almost familiar voice rough and unfriendly.

But Sarika could only stare. _It couldn't be…_

"Raef?"

His eyes narrowed, "How do you know my brother?"

_Brother?_ Her eyes widened in shock. _But that makes sense I suppose,_ she thought as she struggled with the information. This man couldn't be Raef, his face was more sculpted and his hazel eyes deeper than Raef's had been. _Why didn't Raef ever tell me he had a brother?_

"How do you know my brother?" The man repeated.

Gathering up her courage, she said, "Raef never mentioned a brother. H-how do I know you aren't lying? You could be a Rebel spy trying to get information out of me!"

To her surprise the man burst into laughter and slipped his blaster back into its holster. With the aggression gone she could see that he was only a few years older than herself. Holding out his hand, he said, "My name's Jed, I'm Raef's older brother. Who might you be?"

"Sarika," she shook his hand hesitantly, "My name's Sarika. How did you survive that crash? And what's so funny?"

"When I slowed the ship down for that final change in direction, I set the ship on autopilot and jumped. As for what's so funny, you called me a Rebel spy."

"And why would that be funny?"

He grinned, "Because I am."

Her eyes widened and she snatched her hand back, "You…what!"

He laughed again and she wanted to smack him. How dare he!

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna interrogate you about Raef. I know what happened to him."

"Yeah, he was shot down in a _Rebel_ raid! The Rebel's murdered him and now you're working for them?"

He frowned, all traces of humor disappearing, "Is that what they told you? That he was shot down defending against a Rebel raid?"

"That _is_ what happened!"

He shook his head, "The Empire lies, Sarika. That's how they control you." His eyes focused on something on the ground. "When I heard he'd died, I did some hacking, wanted to see how the Empire'd gotten my little brother killed." He looked up again, eyes filled with pain. "He didn't die defending anything, Sarika, he died when his squadron was assigned to the invasion of Kumaar."

_Invasion? But Raef would never have…_

Jed's hand tugging on her arm pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Come on! Hurry!"

"What?" She asked, still in a confused daze.

"Hurry, they're coming back."

"But why? They already think that you're dead."

"And I'd like to keep it that way too, you don't search for a dead person. But they're here for what's left of the ship. They can still melt what's left of it down and reuse the metal. Come on, we really don't want to be caught here!"

She sped up her pace. She could hear them now. Not the trademark scream of the TIE engines, but there was definitely something coming. _Wait a minute._

"Not that way," she said as she realized Jed was pulling them towards an area where the grass would thin out and they would be easily visible, "I know a cave. This way!"

He followed her without question, simply trusting her. _What have I done to deserve his trust? How can he know I'm not just going to turn him in?_

It was a small cave, barely a more than a few meters back. Not much more than a cleft in the rocks really, past where the razor grass gave way to trees. She'd always hidden here when she and Raef played hide-and-seek. Come to think of it, she'd never gotten around to telling Raef that this was how she'd always beaten him in the end…

"So Raef never mentioned me?" Jed asked.

"No."

"What about Dad?"

Sarika shook her head and Jed sighed.

"It was 'cause Dad wanted to join the Rebellion. Mother wouldn't hear of it. She was too loyal to the Empire, so she wanted to _save_ her sons and raise us on an Imperial controlled planet. I guess she succeeded with Raef. I was too old though. She couldn't force me to, so I stayed with Dad and joined the Rebellion. She took Raef and left."

"I'm sorry."

He looked up, meeting her eyes, "Don't be."

She blinked in surprise.

"That's one of the things the Rebel Alliance values most, free will. It was his choice to join the Academy. I'm sorry that he died, but I would never wish his choices away from him."

Sarika's anti-Rebellion speech was on the tip of her tongue, but she stopped. Could she really believe all those things she'd thought before? Even after what she'd seen today?

She felt Jed's eyes on her and looked up.

"Sarika, thank you so much for all your help. I'd probably be dead if it weren't for you. I just have one more question for you."

"Yes?"

He grimaced, "I hate to ask, but is there any way to sneak off the planet? They'll kill me if they find me, and I've got important information to deliver to the Rebellion."

Sarika frowned at the ground. Betray the Empire? But he was Raef's brother, and the Empire had lied to her about Raef! Had they lied about her father too? If she helped Jed escape off planet… Off planet? _Wait a minute!_

"Could…could I come too? I'll make myself useful. I know how to fly some. I'll–"

She stopped as she realized that he was grinning at her.

"I thought you'd never ask. We'd love to have you in the Rebellion. In fact-"

"I never said I wanted to join the Rebellion," Sarika interrupted a little sharply.

Jed blinked, his body regaining some of the tension it had lost moments earlier.

Sarika continued, "But I do want to get off this rock."

"So we work together to that end?" he asked only loosening slightly.

"We work together to that end."

"And after that we'll see?"

Sarika grimaced, "And after that we'll see."

He grinned at her, if not quite as enthusiastically as before. "Sounds like a plan!"


End file.
